1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a light modulation device and a projector.
2. Related Art
There has been known a projector provided with a light source, a light modulation device for modulating the light emitted from the light source, and a projection optical device for projecting the light modulated by the light modulation device in an enlarged manner. Further, there is known a projector (see, e.g., JP-A-2010-8638 (Document 1)), which is the type of such a projector, and provided with a reflective light modulation device. In the projector described in Document 1, the light modulation device is provided with a reflective liquid crystal panel, and a holding section for holding the reflective liquid crystal panel, and is attached to a mounting member having a triangular prism shape.
No matter whether the liquid crystal panel is of the reflective type or the transmissive type, the light input from the light source is absorbed by the liquid crystal layer, various wiring lines, the black matrix, and so on, to thereby raise the temperature. Since the deterioration of quality is incurred if the liquid crystal panel is exposed to a high-temperature environment, it is desirable to perform cooling of the liquid crystal panel sufficiently. Therefore, in the projector described in Document 1, a heat sink for cooling the reflective liquid crystal panel is further disposed on the back side of the light modulation device attached to the mounting member, and is arranged that the cooling air is fed toward the mounting member.
However, in the projector described in Document 1, the light modulation device is attached so that the incident side of the reflective liquid crystal panel faces the mounting member, and the internal space of the mounting member is in a sealed state. Therefore, since it is hard for the cooling air to be guided to the incident side compared to the transmissive light modulation device in which the cooling air is also guided to the incident side, the heat radiation on the incident side of the reflective liquid crystal panel becomes insufficient. Therefore, there arises a problem that cooling of the reflective liquid crystal panel becomes insufficient to thereby cause the reflective liquid crystal panel to be exposed to a high-temperature environment, and as a result, the quality of the reflective liquid crystal panel might be deteriorated.